A space can be physical or virtual. A physical space typically correlates with a physical location and has a postal address. A virtual space does not have to correspond to any particular physical location; it may, however, contain one or more physical locations. On the other hand, a physical location may also contain one or more virtual spaces. A space generally contains networked digital devices which host contents and services. The devices, contents and services are collectively called resources. Resources can move within the space and can move in and out of the space.
In order to identify a space, the space must be characterized. A first conventional approach to characterize a space utilizes only a name to characterize a space. This approach typically uses a beacon which periodically broadcasts the name of the space. The broadcast can be used by receiving devices to identify the space. However, using beacon broadcasts requires installing, configuring, and maintaining beacons in all spaces of significance. Such infrastructural setup and maintenance is costly and time consuming.
A second conventional approach to characterize a space uses data generated from extra sensors, and optionally a user-entered label/tag/name to characterize the space. For example a sensor such as a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver is used to gather the geo-coordinates of the space. The coordinates can be used to find the postal address of the space. Alternatively, the user can manually enter a name (e.g., “home”, “office”) for the space. The drawback of this approach is that GPS receivers do not function well in indoor situations and urban areas, and require maintaining of large databases.
A third conventional approach to characterize a space utilizes information from wireless sources, e.g., using cell tower identifications (IDs) and WiFi access point IDs. The drawback of using a cell tower ID is unpredictable resolution since the distance between a device in a space and the tower depends on which tower is connected. Using WiFi access points provides better resolution, but still requires maintaining large databases that map the access point IDs to physical coordinates or postal addresses.
Such conventional approaches are for identifying physical spaces only, and not suitable for identifying virtual spaces. Therefore, there is a need for a method and system for identifying a virtual network space